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Satoru Takizawa
Satoru Takizawa is an art director at Nintendo, who has worked mainly on The Legend of Zelda series. He is mostly known for designing various villains on the series (like Ganondorf), as well as for being the main responsible for the artstyle of ''Twilight Princess'' and ''Breath of the Wild''. Biography As a kid, Satoru was interested in drawings comics rather than playing the Famicom (NES). In fact, the only times he'd ever play video games was at his friends' house, as he himself didn't own one. After constructing a comic, he'd pass it around his class at school for the others to read. In college, Satoru would develop CG effects for his friends' projects, but still wasn't interested in video games. After being introduced to the Super Famicom and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, he apparently knew that he had to work at Nintendo after seeing the possibilities video games had. When he finally got a job, his first project was a minor task - to create the logo of the international version of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island for the SNES. When the Nintendo 64 was released, the company needed a lot of people for 3D design, and they turned to none other than Satoru Takizawa, whom had worked on 3D designs prior to coming to Nintendo. His first works on 3D design were enemies in Super Mario 64, including Klepto the Condor, Unagi the eel, and the Manta Ray. Come Star Fox 64, he was already working not only on bosses but landscapes as well. The bosses he designed include Goras in Titania, Bacoon in Aquas, Sarumarine in Zoness and Mechbeth in Macbeth. According to him, the technology that he used during Star Fox 64 was unheard of while he was attending university. One of his most important tasks during the Nintendo 64 era was creating Ganondorf and other enemies in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, notably Twinrova. Designing Twinrova was apparently a challenge for him, as the scenario writer made the scenes with the characters funny, and he was afraid that he couldn't live up to that standard, though Shigeru Miyamoto liked it and ultimately put it in the game. While he claims that that was one of the more challenging moments, he also says that designing a cel-shaded Moblin was also hard work. For The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Wii and GameCube, Satoru was the art director for the game. After having a mostly supervisory role in other titles of the franchise, he would reprise that role in ''The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild''. Games *''Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island'' (1995) - Logo Designer uncredited *''Super Mario 64'' (1996) - 3D Animator *''Star Fox 64'' (1997) - Graphic Designer *''1080° Snowboarding'' (1998) - Voice Samples *''The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time'' (1998) - Character Design *''The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask'' (2000) - Enemy Design *''Super Smash Bros. Melee'' (2001) - Original Game Staff (Character Design: Ganondorf) [note: miscredited as Satoshi Takizawa] *''The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker'' (2002) - Design Manager *''Pokémon Box: Ruby & Sapphire'' (2003) - Designer *''The Legend of Zelda: Navi Trackers'' (2004) - Design Director *''The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess'' (2006) - Art Director *''Link's Crossbow Training'' (2007) - Design Support *''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'' (2008) - Supervisor (Original Games) *''ExciteBots: Trick Racing'' (2009) - Art Advisor *''The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D'' (2011) - Graphics Supervisor *''The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword'' (2011) - Design Support *''Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition'' (2012) - Collaboration Contents Advisor *''The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD'' (2013) - HD Refining Art Director *''Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U'' (2014) - Supervisor (Original Games) *''The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD'' (2016) - Art Supervisor *''The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild'' (2017) - Art Director *''The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Expansion Pass'' (2017) - Supervisor: Art *''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' (2018) - Original Game Supervisor *The Legend of Zelda (Switch) - Art Director Special Thanks * ''The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D'' (2015) * ''Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition'' (2018) Interviews * Nintendo Power: Inside Zelda: Twilight Princess * Iwata Asks: Twilight Princess * Iwata Asks: Ocarina of Time Original Development Staff * Iwata Asks: Wind Waker HD * GDC 2017 Panel: Breaking Conventions with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild * Polygon: Breath of the Wild (Link's Hat) * Special 3DCG Artist Recruitment InterviewCategory:Video game designers Category:Nintendo people Category:Nintendo Graphic Designers Category:Real people